"I turn my body from the sun. What ho, Tashtego! Let me hear thy
hammer. Oh! ye three unsurrendered spires of mine; thou uncracked keel;
and only god-bullied hull; thou firm deck, and haughty helm, and Pole pointed
prow,-- death glorious ship! must ye then perish, and without me? Am I
cut off from the last fond pride of meanest shipwrecked captains? Oh, lonely
death on lonely life! Oh, now I feel my topmost greatness lies in my topmost
grief. Ho, ho! from all your furthest bounds, pour ye now in, ye bold billows
of my whole foregone life, and top this one piled comber of my death! Towards
thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple
with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee. Sink all coffins and all hearses
to one common pool! and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces,
while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale! Thus,
I give up the spear."

The harpoon was darted; the stricken whale flew forward; with igniting
velocity, the line ran through the groove; - ran foul. Ahab stooped to
clear it; he did clear it; but the flying turn caught him round the neck,
and voicelessly as Turkish mutes bowstring their victim, he was shot out
of the boat, ere the crew knew he was gone.

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